Blog

"Hope" LP Review [@ShamirBailey]

Such an apt title for such a powerful composition. Hope is the on a whim, lo-fi passion project of the so called "accidental pop star" Shamir Bailey. The whim was rather thin because before surprising the world with a contiguous Soundcloud album he surprised himself by making it over the short course of a weekend; a weekend he was considering quitting music altogether. Thank the gods that govern our lives he didn't because Hope has given me hope, as I'm sure it has countless others.

In a world where we feel like a nuclear strike or a race war could happen at any moment this album can calm nerves and give assurance to a soul in crisis. There's so many vibes of perseverance and redemption riddled throughout the 35 min play through. And the chaotic, yet sharp nature of the many different tracks can be best captured about a third of the way through @ the 13 min mark when you get to the track "Easier" (He lists the songs in the description and made them available for individual download). I had an eargasm the first time I heard him begin to belt out on the track followed by robotic yodeling. It's all so pure. And I generally dislike lo-fi because so often it's TOO lo-fi, but this is the perfect level of lo-fi. It's distorted to the point of being soft on the ears and it's mastered extremely well for such a rushed project. Shamir's voice is given a piercing quality over the production on much of the album. You can really feel the emotion from each note he delivers. This is something that had to be made and made how it was made. Fated to exist if you will. It occupies a space in Music that's rarely done or even done justice when it is done.

And I'll wrap this up here and keep it short. Shamir Bailey is in a class of his own and his forthcoming album release "Revelations" is sure to be an amazing successor to this which sits firlmy atop my list of Best Albums of 2017 already. Sweet, right?